DNS Technical Reference

Domain Name System (DNS) is the default name resolution service used in a Microsoft Windows Server 2003 network. DNS is part of the Windows Server 2003 TCP/IP protocol suite and all TCP/IP network connections are, by default, configured with the IP address of at least one DNS server in order to perform name resolution on the network. Windows Server 2003 components that require name resolution will attempt to use this DNS server before attempting to use the previous default Windows name resolution service, Windows Internet Name Service (WINS).

Windows Server 2003 includes an IETF standard-based DNS server as a service. The Windows Server 2003 DNS Server service is RFC-compliant and therefore it is fully compatible with any other RFC-compliant DNS server. A DNS Client resolver is included as a service in all client and server versions of the Windows operating system.

The Technical Reference DNS subject describes how the DNS Server and Client services form a Windows Server 2003 DNS infrastructure.